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Just a quick progress report on my hobby of model making. I decided on not starting the Junyo aircraft carrier because I wasn’t sure what colour I should paint it. Instead I decided to do a Tamiya motorcycle. I have always enjoyed these builds. I also appreciate that they supply some of the wiring for the engine.

I got the parts cleaned off and prepped for painting. I also took a good look at the instructions. I find it never hurts to look at all of the steps first. I might save you a headache in the end.

I am energized by the work I have done so far. Hopefully, I can continue without becoming discouraged.

What I said then

Do you remember when I said I was trying hard not to become a stamp collector? Do you remember me telling you that Lawrence Block, with his fantastic Keller (the well adjusted, stamp collecting, cool as a cucumber, hit man) series was creating the urge to start a stamp collection, and that I was fighting it.

Yes, I know, I have relapsed a few times. I have bought some magazines. I have taken the catalogue of Canadian stamps out of the library and renewed it the maximum number of times. I have started conversations online with stamp dealers (enquiries, just enquiries). I have even purchased a few commemorative stamps for Canada’s 150th birthday. And Lastly, I purchased and brought back some stamps from Vietnam as souvenirs.

That, seems to pale in comparison to today.

Fate intervenes

Today, I succumbed to fate. I am not sure how I discovered the information, but I did. I guess I will blame it on random internet searches….or Google. Anyway, I found out that there was a stamp show relatively close to where I live this weekend. To top it off, admission was free.

So, I went to my first stamp show. Having been to train shows, and model shows, I know the ability to not spend your money is hard at these things. There’s probably something to tempt you there. They’ve got catalogues, magnifiers, books, cases, a wide variety of tweezers, and of course the stamps themselves. I sort of guessed that I would buy the catalogue of Canadian stamps. If I can’t have the stamps, I can at least see what they look like.

As for the people, while I did not see any children, I saw both men and women, young and old. I saw people checking off numbers in small notebooks, unwieldy pieces of paper, and even a few ipads.

Some dealers were organized and others were haphazard, but all were knowledgeable. In fact, I should probably add that everyone was very friendly.

Lessons learned

What’s my takeaway from this?

You’re bound to spend more money than you budget for.

There are lots of friendly people in the hobby.

There are some attractive women who collect stamps (I met one who was interested in Japanese stamps and wished I had asked her out for coffee).

The stamps themselves aren’t necessarily expensive.

There are way too many categories of stamps and stamps. You could get swamped by it all. One dealer, told me that if I jump in, it would be better to pick one country or one theme and stick with it. It’s good advice, but nobody else seemed to be taking it.

You’ve got to invest not only money, but also time in the hobby.

My overall experience was good. I saw many interesting things, but was able to hold off buying.

Near Misses

I was hoping to get the Canada Post Souvenir car for my birth year. Sadly, many dealers mentioned having it, but deemed it unworthy to bring to the show. I understood.

I did find the Calvin and Hobbes stamp set I wanted, but thought the price was a bit uncomfortable.

I did come across something that made me almost buckle. There was a collection of Japanese stamps in hingeless mounted albums. It was fairly complete. The price was ….certainly more money than I had, ….or that I could spend…..but I wanted it. I really wanted it.

Thinking upon it now, hours later, I still want it.

I did pick up an inexpensive set of bicycle stamps. I don’t know whether this is the start of a collection, or just a passing fancy. I had spent quite a bit of time talking to the dealer, and felt I should spend a little money at his booth.

I don’t suppose I could start a kickstarter campaign that would allow me to buy stamps…

I had a little time to tackle a nanoblock kit I picked up quite a while ago. I put it aside to procrastinate about other things. I finally decided to tackle it.

The kit had a few unique pieces.

The instructions were clear. I especially like being told what pieces will be used in each step. It is a logical and useful way to proceed. Despite my big hands, with the help of tweezers, I was able to construct this one without too much difficulty.

I like the overall look of it, but I wish that nanoblock would come up with some better trees. I know it would mean another tooling and a new part, but I think they could use them in many kits, or sell them separately so people could retcon their old kits. If you buy one of their deluxe kits, you’d want some pretty cool trees, wouldn’t you?

What’s left over when it is all done is pretty much at least one of every piece in the kit. A good policy, I believe.

One of my regrets of early 2017 was not buying a collection of stamps I came across at a market in Vietnam. I was tempted, but had an unusual amount of resistance in me that day. I definitely thought they would make a good souvenir, but either wasn’t sure of the price conversion, whether I wanted them, or just had a good deal of resistance.

Either way, I did come to regret this decision later.

So, when I found myself back in Vietnam again in December of 2017, I no longer had that fabled resistance. Maybe it was the weeks of regret, maybe it was the mood I was in. I had taken out too much Dong from the bank machine and wasn’t going to change it back. I bought more souvenirs this trip that my last one; that is for sure.

So, now I seem to have started a stamp collection. I wonder where this will lead?

On Saturday, while walking the rainy streets of St. Catherines in search of a burrito, my friend asked me what I have been doing hobby-wise. I was at a bit of a loss for an answer. I seem to have taken a break from my hobbies.

I have spent a lot of time researching stamp collecting; both out of sheer interest and as a way of keeping myself from starting a new hobby. Knowledge, and especially knowledge of both cost and how deep you can become involved in a hobby often seem to quench the fire the new hobbies burn at. I can’t say I have quenched the fire yet, but I have come to realize that stamp collecting is a very large (deep? consuming?) hobby that perhaps only model trains can compare to. Once you make that leap….

I could say that blogging is my hobby, but how many blogs would you want to read about blogging.

I am preparing for a trip, and the preparation for the trip is taking up a lot of my time (and if I am being honest, money). I blame myself because I put off preparing for this trip because I was dealing with a medical issue. (see my other blog to find out more about my journey from Thailand to Vietnam via Cambodia by bicycle).

I visited a train store with a friend, and all it made me do was realize how backed up I am with my train hobby. I’ve got so much to do that it all seems so daunting.

I would take up ballroom dancing, but I don’t have a partner.

It’s too cold to play tennis outdoors.

I played darts last weekend after a long hiatus. The results were good, but it wasn’t exciting.

My friend gave some advice about building models. Just see one through to completion and it will change your perspective on everything. This is certainly sound advice. It’s exactly the kind of advice I would have given him if he had told me that he was in a hobby rut. It’s funny how we can give advice, but only to others.

For all the other model hobbyists about there, how do you get out of a hobby rut?

After quite a hiatus from building nanoblocks, I decided to spend some time on this lovely labour day putting one together. Having purchased two French landmark kits, previously (see here). I chose to tackle the Musee Du Louvre kit.

Here’s what’s in the box.

A quick look at the instructions reveals a basically symmetrical kit, with a few unique pieces. It seemed straightforward, so I jumped in.

It was a pretty enjoyable build, despite my hands being unaccustomed to such detail work–it has been a while after all.

Here is what it looked like around step 5.

The most interesting step featured those unique parts–which I had seen when I built the space shuttle.

Hey, look, those mini figures finally have faces.

Here is what’s left in the box (and a few brown transparent blocks I hadn’t put into the box (sorry).

They rank this at a level 3 in difficulty. I would have to say that it was much easier than that. I like the unique crystal pyramid, and the faces on the “people”, but nothing else stands out for me. On the back of the box it is noted that using the nanoblock LED pad, you can light this up. The pictures of this look spectacular.

The interesting thing not noted in the instructions is that the placement of the pyramid is noted on the baseplate. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until I built the whole thing and got it backwards. It is no big deal as it is not seen–but if they went to the effort of doing that, they should have noted it in the instructions.

Just in case you were wondering, I haven’t given up on my hobbies. I am still pursuing them just as they pursue me.

Case in point are the latest additions to my Nanoblocks collection. While casually browsing through my local Toys R Us (I don’t know how to make that inverted R–probably copyright anyway) I found these two kits on sale. Since I was gearing up for the Tour de France (Congratulations Chris Froome) it seemed like fate was telling me to buy them.

I am pretty happy with the purchases, but need to figure out where they are going to go once I build them. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my display space has been co-opted for another use.